The business forms industry has been changing markedly in recent years in order to accommodate the changing nature and structure of business equipment. This is especially true of business forms designed for use, in a continuous feed manner, in computer controlled printers. Business forms are sometimes printed in a way that utilizes both sides of a piece of paper in an effort to conserve both space and the number of sheets required. While it is common to connect many of these forms together in a serial fashion so that continuous feeding is possible, to do so produces a combination form that will not permit each form to be properly positioned at the correct point with respect to the character printing element or print head. This result occurs because many printers employ a paper pulling mechanism or feed that is positioned vertically above the print head. Where that situation exists and the form requires data to be entered at the top of the form, one form in the set must be used to properly align the following form at the proper level with the print head.
However, to conserve and not waste forms such forms are sometimes removed from a continuous set and used as individual sheets of paper. This requires one side to be completed, then the form must be removed from the machine, reinserted and the second side completed. This approach does not lend itself to an appropriate use of computer controlled printers where continuous feed of materials is desirable.
Similarly, the type of form arrangement where one form directly follows another does not lend itself to use in computer controlled equipment due to the arrangement of the print head within a computer controlled printer. In many printers, the print head is not aligned directly with the feed rollers used to feed paper therethrough, but rather is positioned at a point spaced vertically below those feed rollers. This arrangement makes it impossible to both feed a form and align the top portion of that form relative to the print head. Even where there is relative alignment between a print head and the feed rollers, it is difficult to correctly position a form, where the top of that form has spaces where data is required to be entered, properly in front of the print head.
Accordingly, it is common to use a single sheet, nonfolding leader at the beginning of forms to assist in feeding forms through printers.
Many reports required in industry, particularly in the real estate business where various types of appraisal forms are required, employ legal sized documents. Further, many require the use of several pages, most frequently two pages.
It is most convenient to print such reports in an end to end fashion so that the report can be filled out in a continuous manner pursuant to and using computer generated data to complete the blanks on the form. It is also desirable to use every form and not waste one form every time the completing of a form is necessary.
Another constraint is that business form printing presses which can produce continuous forms that are 34 inches in length are rare, and the folding of such forms must take this unusual length into consideration.